The subject of a magical portrait is sentient due to enchantments placed on the portrait by the painter[2]. The portrait will be able to use some of the subject's favourite phrases and imitate their general demeanour based on how the subject appears to the painter; however, they are limited in what they can say or do[2].

A portrait can also move from portrait to portrait, or else visit a portrait of them elsewhere in the world[3].

Contents

Depiction

A witch or wizard can go to a wizarding painter to have themselves painted[2]. This is usually done so that the portraitist can enchant the portait to have some characteristics of the subject[2].

Portrait person

A portrait knows little if anything of its subject's life, and therefore could not hold a very interesting conversation about its subject[2]. The exception to this is of the portraits of Hogwarts headmasters, which are kept in a cupboard from the time of their painting, which is usually very old[1], until the subject dies[2]. The headmaster can therefore teach their portrait to act and speak like them so that they can teach their successors[2].

The person depicted in a portrait can therefore live indefinitely[5], although a portrait does have reason to fear for their life or well-being[6].

Magical photographs

A witch or wizard may also produce a magical photograph, photographs that have been put through a special potion. These, however, are simply animated images; the subject of the photograph has no sentience whatsoever, and is a mere recording of an already happened event, occurring in a continuous loop[7]

Behind the scenes

In the LEGO Harry Potter games, portraits are shown to be far more interactive than in any other media, with objects able to move from the portrait out to the real world and vice versa. Many puzzles in both games revolve around getting a portrait to give you a necessary object, or bringing a real world object into the portrait to assist its occupants.